Dissecting diegetic sound

In 1927, the world of cinema changed when the first synchronised sound of dialogue was introduced in the American film ‘The Jazz Singer’. Diegetic sound has since evolved to bring the audience more intense audio-visual experiences.

Diegetic sound refers to any sound that originates within the world of the film. It comprises all the sounds that can be realistically heard by characters from objects or other characters within the scene’s environment. It can originate from a radio or a public announcement or an ambulance blaring afar. Dialogues can also be diegetic.

On the other hand, non-diegetic sounds include sounds heard only by the audience like background music.

Aural tactics

The foundation of an architecture of any film lies in diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is a strong indicator of mood, time, space and situation. A creaking chair can indicate suspense. Constantly ringing landline telephones can hint at a busy day at the office and also the time period. Howling sound of the wind can evoke suspicion. Pleasant sounds of birds can evoke nostalgia. Silence can help us enter the headspace of a character. The scope of aural ornamentation to manoeuver attention in a film is tremendous. Every sound makes a statement, and the sequence in which sounds are introduced in a scene, can build curiosity about what lies ahead.

In the famous train sequence of Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’ (1955), intense sounds of the winds accompany Apu and his sister, Durga, as they walk dreamily through the grass fields. The sounds make us ‘feel’ the texture of the landscape. While Apu is lost in a state of deep contemplation, Durga places her ears on to a metal pole. The sound of a machine whirrs, creating the suspense of an oncoming event. Soon they break out of the reverie and start chasing a chugging train across the screen. When the wind noise is torn away by the chugging train, the audience suddenly wakes up from the dream-like sequence. Through sound, Ray places hints into the audience’s ears, and the filmmaker then plays with these hints to satisfy an anticipation. 

Power of speech

Anticipation keeps us involved in a narrative. The dialogue for an oncoming scene begins before the cut, helping us ‘stitch’ a sequence subliminally. Sometimes, dialogues are enough to keep the audience glued to the screen. 

Strongly written narratives like the acclaimed American TV show ‘The Sopranos’ (1999-2007) is a fine example. David Chase, the creator, never felt the need to add background music. He put all his confidence into the traditional form of storytelling — the spoken word. When in need of a musical embellishment, he borrows it from music playing inside the car or a restaurant.

However, some filmmakers prefer using diegetic sound alongside composed music to deliver a more immersive experience. ‘Lillian’, a 2019 Austrian film directed by Andreas Horvath, depicts the harrowing journey of an illegal immigrant through diegetic sound and minimal background music. Throughout the film, the protagonist (played by Patrycja Planik) speaks nothing. But chatter such as ‘Have a pleasant day’ airing on an American FM station fills in for the silence, playing along with visuals of a ruthless landscape, also satirically hinting at the presence of capitalism.

Finding foley

The dynamics of sound must change depending on the proximity of objects in a scene. This is down to Gestalt principles, which govern how people perceive objects as either being in the foreground or the background. 

Foley artists experiment with all kinds of objects to build these perceptions. Take the case of ‘Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back’ (1980). When the Imperial Snow Walkers walk, the heavy bass-dominant sound of the footsteps gives way to a more treble-dominant crunchy sound as the scene zooms into a closer shot.

American film theorist and audio engineer Tomlinson Holman decodes this scene in the book ‘Sound for Film and Television’. This increased brightness (or treble-dominant) sound of footsteps was created by overlaying the sound of a bicycle chain dropped into concrete onto the ‘boom’ of the footstep. This brightness takes the viewer closer to the activity, enhancing the proximity of something large and heavy.

Layer up

Blurring the lines between composed music and diegetic sound creates new experiences that ‘tease’ rather than explain or describe, cleansing the palette of ‘the commercial’ and encouraging a new indie form in sound design. In ‘Ghode Ko Jalebi Khilane Le Ja Riya Hoon’ (2018), director Anamika Haksar questions the singular narrative style of storytelling and conquers a more contemplative, playful form. Over the abstract visuals, the soundscape blurs across diegetic sound, electronic music and noise.

Eminent sound designer and location sound recordist Gautam Nair, who put together the complex soundscape for this film, says it was “taken from the serendipity and density of the lanes and lives of Chandni Chowk”. When the team couldn’t capture interesting voices in real time, Anamika, a veteran theatre practitioner, staged certain ‘inserts’ that added more textures to the film. Gautam credits music composer Tyrax for sharing some powerful musical and industrial sound samples. These became the starting layers of some of the soundscape. The deep grunt of the loading worker was “an important motif to capture the inherent dignity of the working class”, he said.

A layered soundscape can add depth to a scene. Gautam illustrates this with a scene from the film: “There is a tight closeup shot of the muscles of a loading worker. We added a layer of his heavy breathing to underline the depth of his labour, a layer of the cart sound to denote the type of work he does, a layer of a screaming man to signify a chaotic workspace, and finally a layer of a lullaby, sung by Anamika, as a nod to his past as a child, or his dreams.” 

In today’s cinematic world, nobody likes to be spoon-fed an emotional arc with musical footnotes and explanatory cues. Embracing the dominance of diegetic sound with minimal music in narratives is imperative for intuitive storytelling.

Film watch

Some recent films where diegetic sound has been extensively explored are Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ ( 2023), Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), Joachim Hedén’s underwater film ‘Breaking Surface’ (2020), and Ivan Ayr’s ‘ Milestone’ (2020). Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Bollywood film ‘12th fail’ (2023) makes use of noises from the crowded streets of Delhi, using background score only minimally. The haunting music and sounds in the TV series ‘Chernobyl’ (2019) is another fine example.